John Dillin, writer of The Christian Science Monitor, The Christian Science Monitor

WHEN President Clinton demanded a ban on assault weapons this
week, he cited the case of Wisconsin police Capt. James Lutz,
gunned down by an M1-A1 rifle after a bank robbery.

"When the House of Representatives votes {on a ban Thursday},
they shouldn't forget the tragedy {of Captain Lutz}," Mr. Clinton
told a White House audience.

There is just one problem: The M1-A1, a semi-automatic rifle, is
not prohibited by the proposed law supported by the president.

Contradictions like that prompted actor Charlton Heston, a
spokesman for the National Rifle Association, to accuse proponents
this week of "deception" and "deliberate misstatement of
reality."

Mr. Heston told a Capitol Hill press conference that none of the
leading advocates of a ban - "not the White House, not the
president, not Sen. {Dianne} Feinstein, are speaking the truth."

Rep. Charles Schumer (D) of New York, the foremost House
champion of the ban, counters that the NRA and its supporters are
waging a campaign based on "scaring people" about "what might
come down the road" - such as a ban on all privately owned guns.
Close vote

With emotions high, today's scheduled House vote is expected to
be close. Earlier, the Senate, by a margin of 56-to-43, accepted
the so-called Feinstein amendment to prohibit the sale of 19
"assault weapons."

The argument between the two sides will hardly be settled by the
House decision, however. The effort to ban weapons in the hands of
American citizens is gaining momentum, and seems unlikely to end
here.

Clinton, Schumer, Feinstein & Co. say that America has turned
into an urban battlefield where teenagers roam the streets with
military-type weapons and murder innocent citizens.

Schumer admits that the weapons he would ban are responsible for
less than 1 percent of the nation's killings. But Police Chief
David Steingraber of Menomonee Falls, Wis., a friend of the late
Captain Lutz, argues:

"I'm not impressed by statistics which say {assault} weapons
like this aren't {widely} used in crime. If they are not, they will
be."

On the other side, Heston & Co. say the freedom to own a weapon
for purposes of self-defense, hunting, or recreation is enshrined
in the US Constitution's Second Amendment. It is a basic civil
right that the White House seems ready to put aside, they say.

Rep. Duncan Hunter (R) of California, who opposes the ban, cites
a study by Gary Kleck ("Point Blank: Guns and Violence in
America") to support his decision. The study concludes that on
average, approximately 2,000 persons per day in America use guns
for defensive purposes, mostly in their homes or businesses.

Representative Hunter says that when Clinton focuses on weapons
instead of criminals, he overlooks the real cause of crime. …

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